As the holiday season approaches, I feel like planning for this time of year starts with decorating my house. One thing I always seem to change is the table runner I have on my dining table. I don't think it's only me- every year at the stores I see a lot people customizing their dining tables with some awesome custom-made or custom printed table runners that add a special touch and give your dining area a festive look.

Today I'm going to show you how you can make your own custom table runner in no time! All you need are some basic sewing skills, a printer and some fabric. So let's get started!

Here's What You Need:

• Fabric (we recommend 100% cotton)
• Table runner pattern - you can find it here 
• Fabric ruler and cutting mat for a straight cut
• Quilting pins and needle to secure the fabric
• Basic sewing supplies- thread, measuring tape, etc.

1. Print out your custom table runner design on an A4 sheet in landscape mode (the longest side should be horizontal) at actual size or slightly bigger than the finished size of your custom table runner. If you don't have a custom design but want to create custom designs yourself using Photoshop or another program, check out this tutorial by Spoon flower. Once you have printed out your custom table runner template, carefully measure every square inch of the printed template and then add 1/8" (around 1mm) to each side to allow for a 1/4" (5mm) seam allowance.

2. Now, print out the custom table runner design on regular printer paper and cut it out as accurately as possible to use as a pattern for your custom table runner practice run. Fold the custom table runner template in half lengthwise and then widthwise to make sure that all margins are accurate and that no part of the design has been cut off due to any margin mistakes you might have made either on your computer screen or printer. Once everything is perfect, lay the custom table runner template flat and arrange all fabric pieces according to what colours they will be once stitched together. Use quilting pins) here but don't sew anything yet. Mark all the lines with a pencil or chalk so you know where to stitch.

3. Once everything is marked and arranged, carefully cut along all the borders of custom table runner design using a fabric cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter. If some of these borders have small pieces on them like triangles or diamonds that will need more than one individual cut, simply add more quilting pins to keep things in place.

4. Take two custom table runner pieces from your bottom line of custom table runner template, pin them right sides together aligning both bottom borders evenly and then sew together with a 1/4" (5mm) seam allowance. Press the custom table runner seams open flat and try it on your table to make sure it fits. Repeat this same step for the custom table runner pieces from the top and right side of custom table runner template- make sure you line up all these seems perfectly before sewing them together with a 1/4" (5mm) seam allowance.

5. Now that everything has been custom sewn, carefully remove all pins and lay the custom table runner flat again with all borders facing down. Align custom table runner right and left borders along their bottom edges with one another by matching up each vertical custom table runner thread so that they are perfectly even on both sides. Pin them in place and sew together using a 5mm seam allowance so there is now a double thickness of custom table runner fabric on both custom table runner right and custom table runner left sides. Press custom table runner seams open again and try it on your dining table. Repeat this step for the custom table runner top and bottom borders so you now have two custom double-thickness side custom table runners and one custom double-thickness top custom table runner. 

Give your dining table a festive zing with these table runners, custom-made to fit your table. You can choose either of the following:

a) A green runner with a red border and "Merry Christmas" embroidered on it (you get 2 runners, one for each end). 

b) A custom-designed table runner in pure gold (2 pieces). Can be designed for one long table or two smaller tables put together.

Conclusion: 

Once you have custom sewn the entire custom table runner borders together, try it on your dining table and if everything is looking good, carefully custom cut a custom made to fit table cloth according to your custom measurements. Take all pieces of this custom made to fit table cloth and machine sew them together according to where they should be joined, taking care not to sew over any of the custom table runner seams or cording so that these can still be easily seen after the custom made to fit tablecloth has been washed/cleaned.